CHEAP DIY Mercury Retort. NO TOOLS REQUIRED. 0.98g Mercury Recovered from the Environment!

Рет қаралды 9,154

Күн бұрын

I built a functional mercury retort for under $14. The inspiration for this was hearing that artisan gold miners around the world are the largest source of mercury pollution, the second largest source coming from burning coal. I wanted to provide an easy alternative for people who have mercury contaminated gold of separating the metals without burning the mercury off into the environment. I hope this is useful to someone and contributes to the good work us modern day miners are doing to help remove mercury contamination from near our waterways.
0:00 Intro
4:06 Loading gold into the retort
5:11 Opening the retort and a look at the mercury
7:09 Weighing out the recovered mercury and gold
9:19 Conclusion

Пікірлер: 66

@lixxxxit 26 күн бұрын

Excellent simple diy retort design! I'm off to the hardware store to get my pieces now! Thanks man!

@davebean2672 Жыл бұрын

Love your videos keep them coming. Great job on all the work you do to put them out.

@UtmostOutdoors Жыл бұрын

Thanks Dave!

@mazuj2 Жыл бұрын

Very cool! I've never seen mercury covered gold. Very interesting, thanks!

@ChefVProspecting Жыл бұрын

Presentation was fine. Thanks for sharing

@shimani141 Жыл бұрын

such a good video, well done retaining all of the weight! excited to see the next video

@danhodgins4015 Жыл бұрын

Nice design, looks like it works well. Good topic!

@UtmostOutdoors Жыл бұрын

Thanks Dan. Yeah, this topic is actually quite relevant even if it is seldom talked about. I wanted to put the info out there to help anyone out there who might have a little mercury on their gold and show an easy cheap option to safely remove it from the environment.

@GSProspecting Жыл бұрын

Great job all around fam. Learn something new today indeed fam. Gold Squad Out!!!

@raymondcoriz9500 Жыл бұрын

$15 vs. $200 and it got the job done. Thanks for the great video. I have about 2.5 grams I need to clean. Heavy pans.

@UtmostOutdoors Жыл бұрын

Thanks for watching, I'm glad it was useful to you! I'm sure you could make a slighty smaller version with 1/2" pipe as well, and maybe toss the pipe in a fire first to burn off any oil to keep the mercury from beading up like it did for me? Heavy pans.

@SECRETCREEKPROSPECTING1776 10 ай бұрын

Sweet alternative brother, well explained 😅✌️👊💪👍🇺🇸⚒️⚒️⚒️⚒️

@UtmostOutdoors 10 ай бұрын

Thanks 👍

@goldsluicetinkerer Жыл бұрын

Interesting and wonderful presentation - Thank You for Sharing

@UtmostOutdoors Жыл бұрын

And thank you for watching my friend!

@MultigrainKevinOs Жыл бұрын

Dude! nice little project, i am super impressed how well that worked and kudos for getting that mercury outta the river too as a bonus! That BC gold is some chonker stuff, yowza !

@UtmostOutdoors Жыл бұрын

Thanks! Yeah I'm glad it worked out as well as it did!

@trylance Жыл бұрын

Very interesting. I haven't been out to BC panning yet, so this info is all new to me. thanks

@bartbley1269 Жыл бұрын

They used to acidize copper plates and the mercury would stick to the copper plate and they would use the mercury covered plate for gold recovery they were used on dredges in the edmonton area

@niocalsgreogiro 8 ай бұрын

First of all I want to thank you for such a fantastic idea. I just built one and works great. The only problem I had was when choosing the iron pipe, since both gas and water pipes I found were galvanized with a nickel or brass coating, and mercury tends to form an amalgam with these compounds (especially when it is heated). That is why, as a preventative measure, I first polished the entire internal surface of the pieces and then let them sit for a day with 20% muriatic acid to finally rinse them with distilled water and baking soda to remove any traces of acid.

@waynoswaynos 8 ай бұрын

Nice one Dave, a good and simple retort. I recently distilled my first quantity of Hg, but instead used lab glassware and a little home made vacuum pump to ensure vapours could not escape from any of the joints. What surprised me was how many tiny particles remained and stuck to the glass when I looked at it closely. A lot pushed through with shaking, as you did, then a lot more with water washes. Then finally I distilled some H2S04 to totally clean the remains. That makes HGSO4 which is basically cinnabar and that can be reduced with heat to recover the Hg. It would be good for you to start with a measured amount of Hg, do your extractions, then recover it with your retort to see how much of it got lost in the process. I wonder if Jet Dry or similar would help to recover more?

@portercrumb8264 Жыл бұрын

This video is bittersweet for me, in Aus as a kiddo I used to play with mercury cuz I thought it looked like the terminator character. BAD IDEA! I appreciate your safety around mercury so you don’t end up like me. I’m so happy for you and your perfect life. 😢😢😊😢 keep digging upmost

@UtmostOutdoors Жыл бұрын

I want to be like you when I grow up Porter Crumb! PS: Happy Belated Birthday!

@portercrumb8264 Жыл бұрын

😊😊😊

@kord530 10 ай бұрын

Was looking for somthing simple like this. I sniped a couple grams last week that are covered. Was looking for a safe and efficient way to clean my gold. Thanks! 😎

@UtmostOutdoors 10 ай бұрын

Glad I could help!

@dodgeit3014 Жыл бұрын

Good stuff

@greatbasingoldrush Жыл бұрын

Good gold video

@UtmostOutdoors Жыл бұрын

Thanks 👍

@brucehodge2492 Жыл бұрын

Very good video. Simple and effective Retort. Did you squeeze off any access mercury before this process?

@UtmostOutdoors Жыл бұрын

Thank you Bruce. I didn't squeeze off any mercury, this was just the raw gold as I found it.

@pjstreasureadventures929 Жыл бұрын

Thanks for this video! Would rather build this retort than lose my mercury! Much appreciated for this knowledge!

@UtmostOutdoors Жыл бұрын

Glad it was helpful! Not to mention much better for our health when we don't release it into the atmosphere. 😀

@pjstreasureadventures929 Жыл бұрын

@@UtmostOutdoors Most definitely! It’s a win-win outcome 😁

@firefox2716 Жыл бұрын

80 Mercury has to reblance its electron charges after going into vaporizing , the electron charges is why it clings to gold. Let me know if the balls of mercury went back to together , sometimes a small amount of battery amp current is applied overnight to re balance recharge the mercury to its normal state of liquid. Great simple retort you made Thanks for showing 🌝

@UtmostOutdoors Жыл бұрын

The mercury balls did go back together. I think the pipe I used had a factory layer of oil on the metal, After burning off that oil, I'm hopeful my next run will have less of that balling.

@firefox2716 Жыл бұрын

@Utmost Outdoors Gas pipe threads have cutting oil sprayed onto them while turning.I know zinc can cause issues. It does,nt take much oil to cause issues. Ok, your mercury electrons stabilized so hope your next run goes well. Have Great Saturday ❤

@MattBroquard Жыл бұрын

Cool video, I like how basic and simple it is, I was actually thinking about trying a similar experiment lol👍 Good to know it works! I’ve used mercury before to clean fine Gold and it definitely works!”pretty amazing” It gets frowned upon but when used properly, 100 percent safe!!!

@UtmostOutdoors Жыл бұрын

Matt, So cool to have you comment on one of my videos! I think I found your channel about 3 or 4 years ago during your Astro van gold dredging days. I used to have a 1989 chevy astro van in my early 20's... If you try a similar retort, I suggest maybe try cleaning the factory oil from inside the gas pipe first and it might help with the mercury beading up at the end, but otherwise the thing did do a surprisingly good job!

@MattBroquard Жыл бұрын

Do you think that you can re- use the mercury to recollect Gold- It looked like it collected back into a glob or did it not? -Wanna get into a system for collecting the ultrafines!!!

@UtmostOutdoors Жыл бұрын

I think the mercury can be re-used for sure. So long as you keep collecting it each time, I can's see why you couldn't.

@SanaTeymouri84 5 ай бұрын

can i retort hgs like this?

@kevinsingel7213 Ай бұрын

Use black pipe instead of zinc plated for best Hg recovery. Also be sure to store the retort on water to prevent evaporation of residual mercury in between uses.

@kevinsingel7213 Ай бұрын

PS it’ll always bead up.

@s.d.iprospecting4359 Жыл бұрын

Could the mercury be beading up because it absorbed other metals from the pipe?

@UtmostOutdoors Жыл бұрын

I think it was beading up due to the oil on the pipe. I should have cleaned up the pipe a bit to remove that factory oil residue before using it and I think that would have prevented the beading. We'll see if it does it again next time now that I have cleaned oil from the pipe...

@neary2k Жыл бұрын

Love the videos man. But as an Irish man, I saw it immediately could you please turn the horseshoe the right side up? It's unlucky to hang it the way it is now.

@UtmostOutdoors Жыл бұрын

Will do! Thanks for the reminder.

@rexhavoc5643 Жыл бұрын

Where can I take collected Hg to safely dispose of it?

@UtmostOutdoors Жыл бұрын

I believe in Calgary you can take it to a hazardous materials drop off area at designated fire halls. The same place you would take used oil, paint, or old mercury filled thermometers. I'm just collecting mine for now.

@rexhavoc5643 Жыл бұрын

@@UtmostOutdoors ok thanks. I somehow got the idea from the video there was some value that could be gained.

@portercrumb8264 Жыл бұрын

Havoc perhaps value can be obtained by making homemade thermometers or maybe DIY dental fillings. Upmost should make a video about these kinds of idea.

@paullisbeth4952 Жыл бұрын

My gold is stick inside the dop draht, do you have any idea how to take it out?

@UtmostOutdoors Жыл бұрын

If the gold is stuck inside the cap, you might be able to pry it out with a screwdriver? If not, now that the mercury is gone, you might be able to re melt it in the cap like a crucible, add some Borax as Flux, and pour it out while liquid? Just a thought.

@paullisbeth4952 Жыл бұрын

@@UtmostOutdoors ok, I will try it. Tq

@jukebeck1398 Жыл бұрын

Next time just coat the inside of your cap with graphite and it won't stick

@MRGOLD99.999 2 ай бұрын

Looks like it worked pretty good but still looks like you have some mercury on your gold it could be the way the camera looks on screen But I bet if you hit that same gold with a torch you'd get the rest of the mercury to burn off

@jamesolson4420 7 ай бұрын

What flux are you using

@UtmostOutdoors 7 ай бұрын

No Flux was used. Just boiling off the mercury to be collected by the retort.

@blacklabelonthebedrocks Жыл бұрын

Hi! You're totally right about avoiding blowing the mercury up into the air. I also built a retort for this purpose. Similar to yours but a little bit more complicated (short pipe and caps like yours, but a brake pipe for the outlet). The used retort should be stored inside a sealable plastic bag like a ziplock. Be careful when using other metals than iron. Mercury may alloy with most metals (including aluminium). Check this out: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/f9iUjNiWp5_UiWg.html That's why airlines only carry mercury under heavy security measures... Best regards from Germany!

@feraldesign Жыл бұрын

Your horseshoe is upside down.

@UtmostOutdoors Жыл бұрын

I clearly didn't do my research when I found that thing in the garden! I'll flip it the right way around for the next video!

@swedishpsychopath8795 Жыл бұрын

Now when you have a lot of spare time - maybe we should collect money for you to buy a new drone to start exposing environmental issues at the oil company you used to work for? Environmental stuff is IN these days - so I don't see any problems doing it.

@UtmostOutdoors Жыл бұрын

I do have a fair bit of spare time these days... haha! Despite the obvious clear cut open pit mine, the oil company actually ran a pretty tight ship when it came to reporting spills and such. I think my time will be better used if focused on my own gold mining and just sticking to what I can directly control for now. I would love to go camping in the woods up there again one day though... Maybe fly a Canadian flag above my camp this time in view of the camp, haha!